


In Which Ajay Just Wants a Vacation

by Uhmeduh



Category: Far Cry 4, Far Cry 5
Genre: Ajay meets the FC5 crew, Bhadra is a cinnamon roll, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Just a lot of Ajay being Done TM
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-31
Updated: 2019-03-01
Packaged: 2019-10-19 17:21:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 14,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17605625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Uhmeduh/pseuds/Uhmeduh
Summary: Hurk Drubman Jr. is a character consistent across three Far Cry games and one of Ajay Ghale's closest friend. So what happens when, 4 years after the end of Kyrat's civil war, Hurk invites the new King of Kyrat for a vacation in Montana? Insanity, explosions, and a lot of Ajay wishing he could get an actual vacation for once in his life.





	1. KYRAT I

Ajay Ghale was not a stranger to violence or strife. He had been in the US Army back when he lived there, and his first greetings from Kyrat, his homeland, were gunshots. Ever since he had arrived in Kyrat he had fought tooth and nail, only ever for himself, picking sides based off of his thoughts at that very moment. He had eventually killed Sabal, thinking that it would keep Bhadra, the only person he could truly claim loyalty to, safe. He then went on to see the man whom he had become fond of in his adventures. He had found out a lot that day, about his sister and how Pagan Min, the man who at one time could've claimed to be his step-father, intended to leave the ruling of Kyrat to him. After placing his mother's ashes to rest with his little sister's, he had watched Pagan leave Kyrat. Pagan had claimed that he went into that shrine a sane man and came out something very different. Ajay understood this, something had settled inside of him when he saw the sunlight once again outside his mother and sister's resting place. 

Only a few days after that incident, Ajay went to go see Amita and check on Bhadra, the girl that was now his only family. And he saw red. When Amita declared Bhadra's exile to him and showed him what she was doing to Kyrat's, no, _his_ people. When Ajay looked back on that moment, it was then that he knew he had embraced the role of Kyrat's new king. He was glad that most had already recognized him as the real leader of the Golden Path so that when he killed Amita and her most devoted followers, the others didn't attack. He was even angrier when he found the command on Amita's body, saying that Bhadra was to be taken to Banapur for a few days and then executed to "insure Sabal's remaining religious zealots will never get her". Rumours spread fast in Kyrat, but Ajay was faster, saving Bhadra from the clutches of Amita's servants before they could even hear of their leader's death. Ajay hid with Bhadra in the Royal Palace, the guards surprisingly allowing him in and following his lead, despite the fact that only days before he had been fighting against them. He later discovered that Pagan has left them orders hours before he had left that Ajay was to be treated as the true king of Kyrat. Ajay didn't care, he just wanted to protect the only family he had left.

Slowly, the country recovered. With both the Royal Army and the Golden Path loyal to Ajay and with Bhadra, the Tarun Matara at his side, Ajay brought the two sides of the country together. He repealed Pagan's laws against candles and set to work on fixing Kyrat's economy. It had turned out that many of Pagan Min's advisors had actually been competent, he just hadn't listened to them. With their help, Ajay managed to start helping the people over the course of a few years, turning Kyrat's opium sales to more legal directions while they worked on repairing other industries, such as Kyrat's ruined farming land and making the mining safer. Kyrat was still a poor and recovering country after 4 years, but the people were happier, crime rate had gone down. Kyrat was becoming more known for a country that had suffered due to its previous owners rather than a dangerous and forbidding place, all thanks to a few well filmed documentaries. Kyrat was also attempting to gain membership to the United Nations, although that had not been accomplished yet.

Not only had Kyrat flourished over the span of four years, but its rulers had as well. It was well known that the King, Ajay Ghale, prefered to just be called Ajay and that he was feircly protective of his little sister and co-ruler, Bhadra. While he stood only slightly above average height at 6'1, the King made an imposing figure when standing face to face. He was clearly strong, and while somewhat awkward at times, he was a good ruler at 30. Their Tarun Matara had just turned 18 that year as well and stood strong and proud, far from the suppression she had faced at 14 from both Amita and Sabal. Had anyone brought up the "traditional" role that the Tarun Matara was supposed to take, getting married and bearing many children, they would be very quickly rebuffed. The people loved their rulers, and many were fiercely defensive of them, at the very head of that group being those that had most closely fought alongside Ajay in the civil war or been helped by him.

It was a beautiful day in Kyrat when Ajay received a call from an old friend, a one Hurk Drubman Jr. 

"Ajay, my bud!" Despite the fact that he sounded drunk, Ajay couldn't help but smile in response to his words.

"Hey, Hurk. What's up?"

"Now y'know I don't usually watch the news, that time could be spent worshipping the monkey god, but my dad's been watching it since he want to run for senator and all. I saw you! You really became the King of Kyrat, yeah? Good for you, bro!"

"Thanks, man." Ajay laughed a little bit as he leaned against the balcony to his palace and watched as some people worked the fields in the distance, growing tea. Kyrati tea had become known to be very high quality. "Your life's been good?"

"Oh yeah, great! Though, we've got some really odd folks around these parts, they don't drink or nothin'! Anyways, I figured, you've been pretty busy ruling the whole country, is it stressful?" There seemed to be some screaming in the background of Hurk's call but Ajay easily ignored it, there was always screaming around Hurk.

"Yeah, it's pretty stressful. But I have Bhadra's help, so she's taken some load off of me."

"She's the sweet one with the bow, yeah? Well, I figure you must need a vacation, right? Dude, come visit me! Montana's got tons of empty land so we can go our four wheeling shoot some stuff, blow some other stuff up. Can't really do that with the peace there now, can you?"

It did sound really appealing, Ajay had been stressed lately, and letting some tension our with a friend would be good for him. "Yeah, sure, man. Heck, things have been good, calm, I'll make sure things are okay and then I'll fly out this weekend, stay for a month."

"Cool man! I'll send you the address so you can find me no problem. Oh, we're gonna have so much fun, man! Shit, gotta go! My dad wants to use the phone! See you soon, man!"

As Ajay slipped his phone back into his pocket, he couldn't help but smile. This vacation would be great, relaxing. The biggest obstacle he'd have to face was his little sister. He was already dreading having to tell her that he was leaving the burdens of the country on her shoulders for a whole month. He hated it when she gave him that disappointing gaze of her. Still, Montana was waiting for him. It'd be nice to be back in the US as well, there were a few things he desperately missed. Like Cheetos. He really missed Cheetos.


	2. HOPE COUNTY II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ajay gets his Cheetos, meets everyone’s favourite senatorial candidate, and realizes that his vacation may not be what he had expected.

Ajay was thankful that Bhadra had simply given him a look for doubting her capabilities in running the country and then hugged him. He didn’t know what he would’ve done had she disapproved of him going to Montana, probably he would’ve cancelled his plans with Hurk and stayed home. Instead, she encouraged him, citing that if he didn’t take a vacation soon he’d end up like his “deranged stepfather”. Ajay has conceded her point and immediately started to pack his bags. Though he unfortunately couldn’t take any of his weapons, he did take his favourite jacket, with the zippered meat pockets, along with his mother’s note that had lead him to this country in the first place. He also grabbed his stash of American money, Kyrati money was useful in Kyrat and India, but few other places. Finally, he grabbed his suitcase and said bye to Bhadra before making one last stop before the airport. Ajay bowed his head as he kneeled before the ashes of his mother and sister. “I won’t be gone long, I love you both.”

Kyrat had an airport of sorts, but it definitely didn’t get any flights from or to America. Still, it was better now than it was before, allowing some tourism from Middle Eastern countries and some flights out to them. Still, Ajay took the tried and true method that could actually be paid for with Kyrati rupees, driving through the border to India and then taking a flight from there to the United States. Ajay almost cursed when he remembered that his passport was needed, but thankfully he was still an American citizen and his passport was not yet expired. With that small heart attack, Ajay texted his friend one last time before getting on the plane and falling asleep for nearly the whole 14 hours, waking only to use the restroom and eat. Being the king of a struggling country was difficult and tiring, especially when said king cared about his country.

It was approaching the crack of dawn when Ajay’s plane landed and he made it through customs. Shamelessly, the first thing Ajay did when he saw the travel store was buy himself a the biggest bag of Cheetos he could get. While it really wasn’t all that much, the intense cheese flavour was enough to make the single serving bag feel like multiple to Ajay, who was now used to Kyrati food, full of spices and flavour, but none of the processed taste that an incredibly guilty part of him had missed. 

Despite it having been 4 years, Ajay has renewed his licence shortly before leaving for Kyrat, so he was pleased to find that it was still completely valid and that he was free to rent a car if he so pleased. Which was exactly why he didn’t. Things had been doing too well for him so far, and Ajay knew that if he rented that car, given his track record, he’d never be able to return it. So with that in mind, Ajay got a taxi and told it to bring him to Hope Country. The driver didn’t seem to thrilled to make the trip from the Bozeman Yellowstone airport to Hope County, and only agreed to let him off at the border of the county, but despite this Ajay thought nothing of it and paid the man, which seemed to make him a little less unhappy about making the trip. 

$150 was a bit of a steep price for 40 miles according to Ajay, but he didn’t bother complaining. He just paid, got his stuff, and was glad that the taxi driver had at least seemed to drop him off in a populated place where he could ask someone for directions rather than the middle of nowhere. That was one of the few similarities he had found between Hope Country and Kyrat, there was a lot of the middle of nowhere for a place that was supposed to be populated. He could also see mountains surrounding the county, something that both fondly reminded him of Kyrat and of his days in Durgesh Prison. Something about those mountains made him wary and really wish he could’ve brought at least a few weapons through customs. Thankfully, Ajay found a local that seemed willing to help him find his friend. Hurk has given him an address, yes, but while Ajay has lived in the poorer parts of large cities, at the very least they had road signs, and those roads were paved. Everything was dirt roads here, and he didn’t know this place like he knew Kyrat. 

“I don’t know why you want to talk to that crazy old man. Why he thinks he can run for senator, I’m not sure. Why he thinks anyone would vote for him is something I’m even more confused about.”

Ajay glanced over at the driver, a momentarily confused look on his face before remembering that the Hurk he knew was Hurk Drubman Jr. “I’m actually looking for his son.”

“Hurk Jr?” The man looked over at him with an even more surprised look and tone. “The only person in that house crazier than the old man is the son! How do you even know Hurk Jr, you’re clearly not from around here.”

Ajay hesitated, he didn’t exactly feel like explaining the whole Kyrati civil war and how he was involved to a complete stranger, even if he was giving him a ride. “We met while on vacation and because friends after a few… funny situations.”

The man just shook his head as he looked to the road, “just don’t come bailing back to me when he starts wailing about his monkey god. I’ve got enough on my hands already. Anyway, we’re here.” 

Ajay hopped out of the truck with his luggage and before he could even thank the man, he was already driving off. He wasn’t left standing there long because there was soon a booming voice speaking to him.

“What are you doing on my property! I am a red blooded American citizen with a gun, it is well within my right to have already shot you, boy!” The gruff old man on the rocking chair startled Ajay, but he didn’t jump. He had a feeling the man would respect him even less if he had.

“I’m Ajay, Hurk’s friend? He invited me over for a vacation?” Somehow he managed to keep from sounding as wary as he felt, because the man snorted and nodded.

“You ain’t no friend of mine. You must be talking about Junior then. My good for nothing loinfruit is the type to invite a _friend_ and then not tell me about it. Junior!”

Ajay had a feeling that there was some form of miscommunication between him and “Hurk for Senator!” but he didn’t have a chance to try and resolve it before Hurk came over and he was soon swept up in a bone crushing hug.

“Ajay! My man! Bro! It’s good to see you’re here! Man, we are gonna have so much fun together, lemme tell you! I made sure to stock up on ammo. The cult people have pretty much driven out all the law enforcement except the Sheriff and a few of his deputies, so no one can tell us not to shoot at ‘em!” 

Hurk’s excitement was palpable and Ajay almost let himself be swept up in it, believing he would have a good time, but nothing could stop the wash of dread that seemed to soak into him at Hurk’s words. “Wait. Stop. What do you mean, cultists?”

“Yeah, dude. Those odd folks I was telling you about? They’re part of some sorta cult, Project at Eden’s Grave or something like that? I dunno man, I just call ‘em Peggies. Everyone does around here. I actually tried to join them at one point, but they got some crazy rules, man! Like no drinkin’, no fucking…”  
As Hurk spoke, Ajay felt himself regretting this trip more and more, and even as he latched onto the idea, he started to realize that this would be anything but a vacation. This would be the Kyrati civil war 2.0, cult style. “So I didn’t end up joining them! But now they’re fucking shit up, they seem to be preparing for some apocalypse or something, I dunno!”

Ajay was going to turn around and demand to go right back to Kyrat, but at that moment a white truck with a black symbol on the side drove up and Ajay could feel himself diving out of the way of a shot before he even realized what was happening.

“Shit man! Peggies! I’ve got some guns here, grab one! It’ll be just like old times!”

Ajay really wanted a vacation, but he also didn’t want to resemble Swiss cheese more than a human, so he grabbed a familiar feeling loaded gun, switched the safety off, and started shooting. He had just wanted a vacation and some fucking Cheetos.


	3. CONFRONTATION III

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We discover Kyrat didn't have good burgers and we also get a glimpse into the Father's perspective.

“Where’s the foreigner!” Ajay was crouched, pressed up against the base of a tree and cursing his life. Why things like this happened to him, he wasn’t sure, all he knew was that he had a gun, a singular grenade, and a few throwing knives he had hastily grabbed, almost slicing open his hand in the process. He could see Hurk’s father shooting the Peggies left and right with his shotgun, but Ajay could see more coming down the road in the distance. Hurk had run off hooting and hollering, a trail of maybe two dozen following behind him. The trucks full of reinforcements were getting closer, and Ajay could still hear them shouting. “Find him! Get him, for the Father!” That image was a bit hard to think about, all these insane cultists dressed like little kids on Christmas, eagerly crowded around a super sized cultist. 

He shook the disturbing thought from his head and ducked around the tree, shooting two of them in the head and jumping out. “I’ll have you know that I am an American citizen!” Why he thought that was an amazing statement to reenter the battle with, he wasn’t sure, but it did work in bringing the attention to him instead of the old man, who undoubtedly was overwhelmed. Ajay downed three in quick succession. He then shot one more before ducking behind the garage to reload. The heat of the fight was starting to get to him, though he was happy to find that he wasn’t completely out of practice. As he finished reloading, he caught sight of the truck brimming with reinforcements driving up and made a split decision. He couldn’t handle another wave of the cultists right now. He really couldn’t. Quicky tossing the grenade out towards the truck, hoping it would explode where he wanted it to, Ajay leapt back out only to find himself shouldering a cultist in the gut. Without another thought, he bashed her over the head with the butt of his rifle and continued shooting as she went down, the blood on her temple leading him to guess she was probably more than just knocked out.

“We cull the herd, Jacob will show you the truth!” The cultist’s words fell on deaf ears as he went down, the very last of the cultists remaining as Hurk reappeared from the trees, a wide grin on his face. The battle had lasted less than ten minutes, but as battles often did, it felt like it had lasted an eternity. Ajay was tense as he looked around for any remaining combatants, but there were none he could see, all that remained were bodies littered on the ground and the heavy weight of responsibility already settling onto his shoulders.

A hand slapped down on his shoulder and Ajay had to stop himself from jabbing his friend in the gut with his rifle. It was just Hurk. He was slightly deranged, yes, but he could trust Hurk. “Man, wasn’t that just a reminder of old times! Me and you, just like it used to be, plus my pa!”

“Right.” Ajay looked down at his nice leather jacket. It didn’t have too much blood on it thankfully, but he knew that he’d have to break out his old zippered meat jacket as soon as possible. “Now, do you feel like telling me what exactly is going on? Preferably some time soon?” He tried not to sound hostile, but he was worn out from his trip, and he really just wanted to take a shower, change, and sleep.

“Woah, man!” Ajay cringed, it wasn’t great that even Hurk could notice his temperament, the other man was like a puppy, pretty happy and usually oblivious to the emotions of others.

“Sorry, sorry.” Ajay rubbed his face, his eyes blinking rapidly a few times. “I”m just… tired, y’know? I need to collapsed and sleep for like two years before I can even think of doing that again.”

Hurk, as oblivious as he was, seemed to get it. “No problem man. We’ve got a guest room you can take, and I’ll make some burgers you can have once you’ve washed up. But I can’t really tell you much about them Peggies and stuff.” He shrugged, as if he needed to emphasize his point, “The closest person I can think of that would probably be able to tell you about this stuff is Jess? She don’t like me much, but she’s smart and deadly, plus her uncle is some kind of crazy prepper dude. She’d definitely know all about this.”

Ajay felt oddly like he was being sent on a quest. He got the feeling a lot back during the civil war days of Kyrat, especially after talking to either Amita and Sabal, may both their bitch asses burn in hell, but it was weird to feel it again after all these years. It did feel somewhat like nausea though, so it may have just been his annoyance at being sent places like a pack mule.

“Right. Well, I’m going to go take a shower, so if you’d just…” Ajay was lead to the guest room and left to unpack. As soon as he was alone he slumped against the wall, his heart racing. He just knew he wouldn’t be able to sleep well that night, but he also knew he’d have to sleep eventually. He delayed the inevitable by taking a shower, making sure to scrub both the plane sweats and the blood from the cultists off of himself, though he didn’t run it until the water turned cold. He didn’t want to be a bad guest. He could feel a little bit of the dread ease off him when he zipped his jacket up, something about it made him feel like he was able to handle a little more of the shit life threw at him. He looked out the window and sighed, he wasn’t old enough yet to justify mid day naps.

“Dude! Burgers! And dad found you an old GPS-thingy! It doesn’t have a map on it right now, but according to him it’ll update as you go. Plus, you can add markers and stuff.” Ajay headed down the stairs and out to where Hurk was somehow managing to not burn their burgers, and Hurk’s dad was fiddling with an old device.

The old man scowled at him but his expression was ever so slightly less harsh than it was before the cultists had attacked them. “I guess you’re not as useless as I thought. Here, take this, try not to get yourself killed. We’re lacking decent folk in these areas, and I could always use more people voting for me. Maybe if you help anyone out, tell ‘em to vote for Hurk.” With those words the device was shoved into his hands and Hurk Sr. took a burger before heading inside to do who knows what. 

“He really likes you, man! Don’t think I’ve seen him warm up to anyone that quick, Actually, I don’t know if I’ve seen him warm up to anyone.” Hurk shrugged and handed him a burger, packed with bacon, lettuce, tomato, onion, and some type of orange sauce. Ajay tried not to figure out what it was as he took the biggest bite he could.

“This is really good, man,” Ajay said after swallowing down the hunk of mean, bread, and other ingredients with some difficulty. “You really don’t get stuff like this in Kyrat. Most of them seem to not even know what a burger is. They’ve got some really good food, but nothing beats a good, old fashioned American burger.”

“Damn, bud, I get you.” Hurk said with a deep nod, as if they were discussing something absolutely profound. “I actually left ‘cause my craving got so bad. I just can’t live without ‘em.” The two ate the rest of their meal in relative silence until Ajay stood.

“So, I’ve decided that the shower was enough for me, I’m going to go find that Jess girl you talked about?”

“Yeah! You stock up on some supplies in case you run into some Peggies, I’ll put the numbers of the mill she usually chills as into your GPS. It’ll point you in the right direction.” And so they did just that, Ajay grabbed an old bow and some arrows he found, dusty and hidden in the garage, along with a newer looking handgun, just in case. He’d prefered guns years ago, but living in Kyrat had taught him the value of a good, old fashioned bow. That, and that weird drug trip involving some demons and a tiger where his only weapons were a bow and a knife. He also decided to grab some more grenades and a stick of dynamite. Hurk soon gave him back the GPS and he was set to go. “Stay safe man, don’t let the Peggies stick too many bullets in ya.”

 

_ “My children.” The Father stood before his congregation, his loyal siblings standing to his sides. “Shortly before the collapse began, an outsider came to our lands. My brother Jacob has informed me that he had sent his men to tell this man of the Word, but he has rejected it. This sinner has rejected the Word, but he is not beyond salvation.” Joseph bowed his head and in turn, so did the men and women before him. “This man is important, perhaps as important as the Deputy. We will welcome him to our family, one way or another…” The man turned to his older brother and smiled, though the soldier did not smile back. “Jacob, while this sinner is in the mountains, you will make him repent.” _

_ The scarred man smiled now, but it was twisted and his eyes held none of the warmth of the Father’s. “Of course, Joseph. I will see if he is strong enough.”  _

_ Joseph may not have agreed with his brother’s thoughts on only the strong being worthy to live, but if he didn’t, he said nothing of it. Instead, he turned back to his children. “Each one of you I know will help bring this sinner into the light. Go, my children. Remember, we may not know this man’s name, but even so, he is important.” _


	4. JESSICA BLACK IV

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ajay makes a new friend who reminds him of home and Hurk does a (seriously tiny) bit of reflection.

Ajay screamed like a little girl the first time he saw a wolverine, which was when it bit into his shin. He couldn’t help it, it looked like a honey badger at first glance, though Ajay didn’t even know if there were honey badgers in Montana. Ajay had once been interviewed by an Indian new station shortly after he became King of Kyrat. They asked him different things, what he thought of the previous king, if he believed in Kyrati religion, and at the very end they asked him what the scariest part of coming to Kyrat was. They probably thought it had been his bus being stopped with gunshots, or being between the two faction leaders of the Golden Path, or even just the act of being shot at every single day without fail. But no. When he was asked that question, Ajay had looked straight into the camera and deadpanned “the fucking honey badgers.” Bhadra had scolded him about it after the interview, but Ajay maintained his stance that he was just being honest. Sometimes he even had nightmares where he was attacked by waves of honey badgers without a weapon.

After he shot the wolverine in the head with his bow, skinning it expertly and stuffing some of its meat into his zippered pockets for bait, Ajay continued on his journey. He didn’t know how far he was from the Baron Lumber Mill, the place where Jess Black was apparently commonly found. All he knew was that he had been walking for about a half hour and he was already sick of it. Ajay huffed as he hopped off a small cliff, rolling as he landed. He had a lot of experience with hills and cliffs in Kyrat, so he actually knew how to fall. He had seen people fall for only 5 feet and actually get hurt, something he really didn’t understand.

Ajay whipped around when he heard a growl, lifting his bow as he scanned the trees. He remembered the snow leopards of Kyrat, but he didn’t think that they had them in Montana. He saw movement and he shot, a cougar charging at him, an arrow sticking out of its shoulder. Ajay swallowed thickly, shooting again but it wasn’t enough to stop the cougar from tackling him to the ground, his bow going flying to the side. He cursed, the cougar snarling at him as he desperately tried to grab for his knife that should have been on his left thigh before realizing he had to leave his kukri at home. 

So, like an idiot, Ajay punched the cougar in the face.

In the future, Ajay would defend himself by arguing that it worked. Or at the very least, it worked enough for him to get up and grab a nearby stick to then thrust into its neck. He scrambled back, panicked as he grabbed his bow and aimed it at the cougar. But it was already dead, the stick having finished it off.

“Sorry, cat.” He said awkwardly, remembering his tiger friend from Shangri La as he took the cougar’s skin and meat, though he didn’t have enough room for all of it. He left the cougar’s body in the forest as he continued walking, shook coming upon a bloody mess of a scene. 

The sign, old and flaking, declared the site as the Baron Lumber Mill, as Ajay saw before quickly hiding again so none of the Peggies that filled the Lumber Mill saw him. “Shit.” He muttered to himself as he crouched and tried to make his way to higher ground. Hopefully he’d be able to take all of them out without being seen so he didn’t have to deal with a firefight and bullet wounds.

Ajay settled himself onto a tall hill and immediately set to trying to get a good aim on the sniper. They were always the ones that saw him and caused problems. He was also glad to see that there was an alarm box which he pretty easily shot out. There was only one, which was even better. Some would be angry that those alarm boxes were at the site, but those told him that the Peggies that ran the site didn’t really have any other ways of calling reinforcements if he was seen. One by one, Ajay went through the base taking out 6 other Peggies, each time his confidence in doing it increasing. But he got sloppy, and just as he was about to shoot the last guy, he saw him, firing a shot just as Ajay’s arrow ran through his neck.

Ajay froze and looked around, getting ready to start shooting again in case some of their allies came. But nobody came. Ajay let out a quiet breath, standing and going to open the cages to free the various hostages.

There was a knife at his throat.

“Who are you. Why are you here.” They weren’t stated as questions, they were sharp and piercing, but Ajay had a feeling this woman wanted him to answer them. He didn’t feel like dying today.

“I’m Ajay Ghale! And I’m, uh, looking for Jessica Black?” Ajay was proud that his voice didn’t crack. He hadn’t feared one person this much since Yuma Lau had held him prisoner and fucked with his mind.

If it was possible, the woman’s grip on her knife tightened. “Why.” If her knife got any closer he’d be bleeding.

“Hurk- my friend- he told me to find her to explain all this cultist stuff to me. Honestly, I just came here on a vacation and I’m kind of regretting it.” His words came out in a rush, but the woman laughed and lowered her knife.

“You’re friends with that idiot? If I’m gonna be telling you anything, let’s get one thing straight. It’s Jess.” The woman, now identified as Jessica, no, Jess Black, turned and started to collect a bow and some arrows that laid on a few crates. “And you’re going to need to help me with something first.” She sais, staring him down.

“Sure. Uh, you can call me Ajay. Can’t really change my name much.” As soon as he agreed to help her, she started walking, clearly expecting him to follow.

“Right.” She didn’t sound impressed with his attempt at a joke. “We’re hunting down this asshole they call The Cook.” She glanced back at him and nodded in grudging approval, “you picked a good weapon. Seem skilled with it too.”

Ajay nodded, “thanks, I picked it up four years ago. My little sister, well she’s pretty much my little sister, she taught me.” 

“Smart girl, a bow will always be loyal to you.”

“Yeah. So… why do they call this guy The Cook? A place like this, I’m betting it’s not because he makes a mean steak.” He said, following Jess to wherever they were going.

She laughed bitterly and Ajay had a feeling the grudge was very personal. “Yeah, no. It was back a few years ago, Jacob recruited this asshole.” She spat at the ground, “The Cook, messed up fucker that he is, is one of his most zealous followers. You see, to Jacob, there’s just the weak and the strong. The Cook’s job is to do his ‘purging’, kill the weak.” Jess gestures to a pile of burnt up bodies piled on the ground. “That’s his signature, burned up innocent people.”

Ajay swallowed thickly and glanced away, “is that why they call him The Cook? Because he burns people?”

But Jess shook her head, “nah.” She held out a hand to stop him, crouching down. “Peggies, and they’ve got hostages. They see us-“

“The hostages are dead.” Ajay nodded, crouching as well and notching an arrow. “It’s not the first time I’ve dealt with bullshit like this.

The two of them made quick work of the situation, killing the Peggies and freeing all three hostages, finding that The Cook had taken more of them. “You want to know why they call him The Cook?” Jess sighed as they kept going, shaking her head. “Like I said, it was years back, Jacob sent the Cook to round up this family. He starved ‘em. Kept water from them. Forced them to drink piss to survive, kids didn’t want to but their parents made them drink. They threw up, and that made The Cook mad.”

Ajay was starting to get the idea that Jess knew this family, maybe some friends of hers. “Did any of them survive?”

She ignored his question, continuing with her story. “So he strung the parents up in the hot, hot sun.” Fate seemed against Ajay hearing the whole story because there was another camp with three more hostages. They were seen before they had killed them all, Ajay had to jump down onto a cultist to take him out so none of the hostages died. Jess was pretty annoyed that The Cook wasn’t there, but she was happy the hostages were safe. They continued tracking him.

“Eventually he asked the kids if they were hungry. Course they were, it had been days since they’d eaten, they were ravenous. ‘Did they want pork,’ he asked. ‘Yes,’ they said, ‘they’d eat anything’. You remember the game, ‘this little piggy…’?”

Ajay felt himself sicken, he almost wanted to throw up in a bush then and there. “Did he feed them…” he didn’t want to finish his sentence, he couldn’t.

“Yeah. He did. Of course, because the two of them there were still only 20 piggies. But Te Cook didn’t want to waste the meat. And soon the air was full of that fucking smell of roasting flesh.” Jess quieted a bit, “I’ll never forget that damn smell, and I’ll never forgive him.” Ajay couldn’t speak, he could barely just continue to follow her. She glanced back and gave him a vengeful smile, “anyways, that’s why they call him The Cook. He definitely doesn’t cook steak.”

They reached where The Cook was burning his victims and Jess nodded, “shit, they’re already up in flames. That’s him, with the flamethrower. He’s not getting away this time.”

Ajay nodded in agreement, shooting one of the cultists. The Cook didn’t notice, even as he took down one after another of his men. The Cook only noticed his presence when Ajay took a shovel and bashed the flamethrower out of his hands, then in the side to knock him over, and maybe a bit because this dick needed every bone in his body broken. “Want to do the honours?”

Jess seemed a bit surprised but she swallowed, stepping forward and looking The Cook dead in the eyes. “This little piggy loves revenge,” she muttered as she stuck an arrow through his skull, and Ajay was surprised at how close to a growl her voice got. She let out a breath and shook her head, “I thought it’d make me feel better, but I’ve still got an empty hole in me. Still, he got a better death than he deserved.” Jess looked him over and smiled, “maybe I can fill that hole with dead Peggies. You’re not too bad, Ajay. Let’s head back, I’ll tell you about the Cult.”

They sat on top of a building, taking swigs from a shared bottle of whiskey and playing “who can shoot more Peggie trucks so they blow up”, with Ajay calling Jess out for cheating by using a flaming arrow, and Jess calling Ajay out for there being no rule about it. 

“Let me get this right.” Ajay said, snatching the bottle of whiskey right before Jess was able to grab it and receiving a poisonous glare for his efforts. “Jacob values only the strong and likes to brainwash people, Faith probably isn’t actually a Seed at all and drugs people out of their minds, John is a sadistic bastard with good fashion taste who is in charge of purifying people, and Joseph is the manipulative head honcho they all follow?”

Jess laughed, stealing the bottle back from him, “yeah, basically. They’ll all kidnap you from the streets, but I’d be extra careful with Faith. The bliss is in the air, the water, you get too close to one of the patches of the stuff and you’re hers. She’s dangerous.” She looked at the setting sun, “Jacob’s more dangerous after the first time he’s got you. Apparently he’s got this song, don’t know what it is, but it’ll put people in a frenzy. They don’t know friend from foe.” Jess tossed the now empty bottle and it shattered on the ground. “They’ll do nothing but kill and kill until they pass out and snap out of it. They’re dangerous.”

Ajay swallowed, “Faith reminds me of some shit I went through back in Kyrat.” He muttered, reaching for the bottle before realizing that just moment before it had been broken.

“Right.” Jess laughed and Ajay was happy to hear that it sounded less bitter and delirious than it had before. He considered her his second friend in Kyrat, and he didn’t like it when his friends hurt. Plus, she reminded him of Bhadra, and who she could have been if the war and the duties that Amita and Sabah put on her had gotten to her more. “I still don’t believe that you’re king of this random third world country by the way.”

“Believe it or not,” Ajay shrugged, grinning as her as he got up with shaky legs. “Maybe when all this is done, I’ll go back to Kyrat and you can visit. You can meet my little sister. You remind me of her.”

Ajay started walking towards the ladder down, his steps carefully placed. “Bhadra, right? The one with the bow? … I’d like that. She sounds sweet.”

“She is.” Ajay murmured before he was climbing down the ladder and catching a ride back to Hurk’s place with one of the many people that had filled the Mill after he had liberated it.

Hurk just laughed at his friend. “You’re wasted, dude. You met Jess though?” He said as he helped Ajay into the bed, even being considerate enough to take the meat out of his jacket to toss it into the fridge.

“Yeah…” Ajay mumbled, his words starting to slur a bit, “like m’ lil sister. Night… bud.” And he was out.

“Night, man.” Hurk said, taking the meat downstairs. He knew a lot of people thought he was dumb, but Ajay was a good friend to him, so he’d be a good friend to Ajay. The monkey god had given him this friendship, and he wasn’t about to just throw it away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Updates may slow after the 15th or may speed up drastically. Not sure yet, all I know is that I'm hyped for FCND


	5. SEDUCTION? V

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ajay really shouldn't be left alone.

The cultists had shitty music. Ajay hadn’t been driving for all that long, but already he was developing a tick in his right eye. For the first time in his life, he missed Rabi Ray Rana. The man had been ridiculous with an insane sense of humour, but at least he didn’t play random country styled cult music. He had gotten close to the area that was apparently John’s region and the music had changed to a choir version, he had to admit it was better. That alone had been almost enough to make him enter John’s region, but he decided to deal with one insane brother at a time– and stay as far away from Faith as possible for as long as he could. Of course, he had tried switching the radio stations, but this truck seemed to have them disabled, unlike all the others that he’d tried. It was a pity that he was so fond of it. His radio started to freak out, and soon there was a voice coming through it.

“You’ve been a real pain in my ass.” Ajay paused and sighed. He had the worst luck.

“I’m a pain in everyone’s ass. Deal with it.” He didn’t want to deal with this shit, even if being a dick would get him shot in the head. 

“... You’re not the junior deputy.” Instead, it seemed to get him a hint of confusion and maybe respect? Whatever it was, the voice on the other end of the line became a lot less angry and more suspicious. “The deputy is too weak to speak back. You’re that outsider.”

“I’m an American citizen.” Ajay replied, almost on instinct. He had been called an outsider a lot, both by cultists and those that were supposed to be on his side. This usually shut them up at least a little bit. 

“That doesn’t mean anything anymore.” It was the first time he’d had his reply brushed off so easily and casually. “My brother is interested in you, apparently you’re almost as important to him as the junior deputy.”

Ajay didn’t know how to react, so he said the first thing that came to his mind– “I’m not marrying your brother.”

That actually garnered him a laugh, but Ajay wasn’t sure whether to be proud of that fact or not. “I hope not. You’ve actually been a real pain in my ass as well, outsider.” He prefered his conversations with Pagan, this man felt like he could eat him at any minute, and they weren’t even face to face. “You’re interesting. I’ll see you soon, and we’ll see if you’re weak…”

He could tell the connection had been cut and Ajay pulled to the side of the road to think for a moment. “Well shit.” He muttered hopping out of the truck. It must be cursed, he should’ve known, with it only having cultist music and being suspiciously impervious to bullets. He was sad to see it go, but the remote explosive attached to its bottom created an amazing explosion next to the bunch of Peggies who went to investigate it.

Normally Ajay had either Jess or Hurk with him when he was wandering around, looking for ways to mess the Peggies up but not this time. Hurk was busy praying and recovering from a bullet wound to his leg, and Jess was working on something with the Whitetail Militia, who didn’t trust him because of his status as an outsider. For that reason, given his luck, he really shouldn’t have been surprised when he was ambushed and kidnapped.

 

He was surprised when he woke up in a cage that smelt like wet dog. His head was swimming and he really wanted to get away from the smell but he couldn’t seem to move. “Hm. You’re awake, that wore off faster than I expected.” Ajay brought himself into a sitting position and forced his eyes open, coming face to face with a ginger man with a large beard. Jacob Seed. He had suspected that he had been speaking to the eldest Seed brother over the radio, but he had hoped that he hadn’t been.

“I metabolize things quickly.” He muttered, looking around. “Surprised I’m not getting a monologue. Usually I get a monologue. Or seduced, but I’d prefer a monologue.” He muttered, thinking of Yuma and Durgesh Prison and shuddering.

Oh, Jacob’s grin had too many teeth, sharp, sharp teeth. “Normally you’d get an orientation, but I have too many questions for you.” He leaned on the cage and now Ajay wasn’t sure he wasn’t getting seduced. “Firstly, your name.”

“You better not steal my identity.” He couldn’t help it, bad one liners were a nervous tick of his. “Ajay Ghale.” It was probably better for him to be more honest than not, those teeth were too sharp for him to risk it.

“Ajay Ghale…” Oh, now he was almost certain that this man was going down the seduction route. That, or he just really liked to get close to people. His face was almost pressed against the cage now, and Ajay mustered up the will to shift backwards a little bit. “You’re a mystery, Ajay Ghale. And as… all knowing as my little brother Joseph acts, he doesn’t know what you are. And that scares him. Frankly, I find you interesting.”

“Thanks? Always love… being a mystery.” God, he sounded so dumb. He just wanted to be back in Kyrat. “You sure you’re not going the seduction route?”

“No.” No, he wasn’t sure he wasn’t going down it, or no he wasn’t going down it? The man pulled a chair over from the right of the cage and sat down, his elbows resting on his spread knees and his chin on his hands. “So, Ajay Ghale. Your name isn’t very American sounding for an American citizen.”

“And yours is obnoxiously American.” He snapped back, “I was born in Kyrat, came here when I was 3, and moved back when I was 26 to spread my mother’s ashes. Is that enough information for you?” Was it a good decision to sass the wolf-like man? Maybe, he seemed to like it when people didn’t submit, and Ajay followed no one but himself and Bhadra. Not after what happened when he followed Amita and Sabal, trusted them. That got him nothing but pain.

“Kyrat, eh? I’ve been to Kyrat, back when I was overseas. How are you enjoying the civil war?” Was this man seriously that behind on the times? The war had been over ever since he became king, from what he knew it had been broadcasted over tons of news channels.

“It’s over. It has been for 4 years now.” He was delving into dangerous territory, Ajay was relying on the man not google searching his name and figuring out who he was, that would go to waste if he outright told him.

“War is never over, not in Kyrat, not in America. America just likes to pretend.” Jacob didn’t seem to be upset by that fact. “You look about 30, Ajay Ghale, did it end before or after you got there?”

Not good, he was getting closer and closer to the truth, but Ajay couldn’t just stop answering. “After. I fought for the Golden Path, I was the one that dealt with Pagan Min’s generals and helped instill the Tarun Matara as Queen.” Oh, he really hoped Jacob Seed wouldn’t fact check. But, the man hadn’t even known the war was over, so he probably wasn’t the type to use the internet.

“Hm.” He really didn’t like it when Jacob grinned. “So you were strong then. We’ll see if you’re strong now.” And he really didn’t like those words. “You must’ve been quite important in Kyrat then. Why come to little old Hope County, Montana?”

“Vacation.” He said simply, “I guess I should’ve done a google search before coming.”

“Yes. You should’ve, but where’s the fun in that.” And then, for some reason, the door to the cage was opened, Jacob Seed holding it open for him. “You’re free to leave. Don’t worry, you’ll be back for a proper orientation.” And just like that, a black haired, rather nervous looking man escorted him to the door and pushed him out, quickly shutting it behind him. Ajay was bewildered but he didn’t try to go back in, instead running as far as possible into the woods before crouching and checking his location on his GPS. His radio started to freak, and soon he could hear Hurk’s voice.

“Ajay? Ajay! Come on, man, answer me if you’re dead or alive.” His best friend was a welcome sound after dealing with Jacob Seed.

“Hey, man, I’m okay. I’m alright, what’s up?” He said, already relaxing a little bit. Hurk was a friend. Hurk didn’t have suspiciously sharp teeth, and Hurk had never tried to seduce him. At least, he didn’t think Hurk had ever tried to seduce him. Except for that one time, but they were very drunk and very battle high that time.

“Ajay! Thank the monkey god! Jess said she found your truck with the spray painted dick blown up, ‘n then I couldn’t get ahold’a you!” His friend sounded a little bit drunk, but honestly, he usually sounded at least a little drunk whenever they spoke.

“It was cursed, I had to blow it up.” Ajay said as casually as possible. Hurk usually believed anything when it involved explosions, as far fetched as the truck being cursed may have seemed. “It only played cult music.” He added, as if that made his argument stronger.

“Aw, man, it always sucks when that happens.” Hurk seemed to believe him easily, which was nice. “Yeah, sometimes things get cursed ‘round here, it happens. We’ll get you a new, truck, paint another dick onto it. But man, why weren’t you answering? I was worried, dude, cult’s dangerous.”

“Yeah.” Ajay winced as he ran a hand through his hair. “Speaking of the cult… I was actually kidnapped by the cult and–”

“Dude! The cult! Are you okay, man? Did you escape? Need me to patch you up, pick you up? Well… I can’t pick you up, my leg ain’t good enough yet, but I can call Jess for ‘ya if you want? Where are you?” It was nice to have someone worried about him like that.

Ajay told Hurk the coordinated and soon Jess was driving up, a scowl on her face. “I should’ve known that I couldn’t leave you alone.” She said, giving him a pointed look. Ajay had enough sense to look abashed.

“Sorry? Not my choice to get kidnapped.” He mumbled, getting slapped over the head for his efforts.

“Exactly why I can’t leave you alone. Can’t even manage to not get kidnapped without me for less than 24 hours.” Jess made a tsk-ing sound and Ajay just pouted. He wasn’t that bad, at least, he didn’t think he was. Ajay made a startled sound when Jess tossed a bundle of arrows into his lap. “You still have your bow, good. We have an animal sanctuary to raid.”

“Excuse me, what!?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not sure about the rhythm in this one. What can I say, Jacob is hard to write.


	6. ANIMALIA VI

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In a case of humans vs all other animals, Ajay would always choose other animals. Unless those animals were honey badgers or wolverines.

Ajay was fuming… Well, he was more like just pouting and muttering under his breath, but for him that was basically fuming. Jess was refusing to elaborate on what they were doing raiding an animal sanctuary, or why they were raiding it. Jess rolled her eyes and gave him a look. “Will you stop?” She muttered, handing his binoculars back to him, Ajay shoving them into one of his various cargo pants pockets. He wore skinny jeans constantly while in Kyrat and while he loved his skinny jeans, they had a serious lack of storage. Especially since his jacket pockets were constantly stuffed with meat and he didn’t want to get that all over his equipment. 

“I’d love to just stick them all through with arrows, much something tells me you don’t think that’s the best plan.” Jess spoke again, the Peggies all unaware of how close their deaths were.

Ajay shook his head, looking at the caged animals that were snarling and the Peggies were taunting, “No. I have something better.” He said, crawling closer and looking down into the Peggies, smirking. He reached into his meat pockets and tossed a handful of bait out onto a cluster of Peggies, immediately stepping back to hide in the cover of the trees. He watched them scream and panic, shooting erratically as they were attacked by a large cougar. Ajay used the opportunity to shoot the sniper in the head. “And that,” he said with a grin, “is how its done.”

Jess grinned right back and the two of them looked like a pair of demented siblings for a moment. Perhaps they were demented. She glanced away, bringing her radio to her mouth. “Hey, Eli? Get ready to occupy the F.A.N.G center.” 

Ajay wrinkled his nose, “ugh.” He didn’t like the Militia, they didn’t like him and they reminded him too much of the Golden Path, though they at least didn’t have the warring factions that were Amita and Sabal.

“Hey, you don’t have to like them, I don’t. But they’re useful for making sure the cult doesn’t take back more area.”

“I guess so.” Ajay muttered, watching as the Peggies calmed down and went back to their rounds, having killed the tiger and pushed their friends off to the side. He had to admire how nonchalant they were about death, probably because they believed their demented acts would send them straight to heaven. He could respect that, in a weird way. “Alright, now we shoot. You take the heavy out with a fire arrow then move on to the rest. I’ll start with the animals.”

Jess nodded, she always had hated killing the Judges because she felt for the wolves that they had been before they were drugged up and changed. She related more to the animals than to most people. “Got it.” She said, lighting an arrow and releasing.

With that, chaos began. The remaining heavy gunner exploded into flames, while the two Judges were taken down one after the other. The Peggies shot blindly but were quickly taken out by the twin archers. Neither noticed the Peggie taking a picture and sneaking away through the forest. Ajay switched off the alarms just to make sure and glanced over at Jess. “Did that feel too easy to you?” He asked, looking around for a radio that was playing incessant cult music. It was the one about the John brother, which was one of the better ones in the country style, but it was still the cult music so he wanted it off.

“Eh. A bit, but the Militia’s been gaining strength, and with you fucking around and killing people, maybe they’re short on able gunmen. Plus, I hear the Junior Deputy’s in the region, so that may have something to do with it.” Jess said, waving a truck full of men and women from the Militia in.

“I guess so.” He called back, having walked into a building to shut the radio off and grab some baseball cards that caught his eye. “I’ve heard of this Deputy, apparently they’re a pain to the cult, which is always good.”

Jess tossed her head and looked back at Ajay as he came back out, tossing him enough arrows to refill his quiver. “They are. It helps that the Seeds seem to be obsessed with them, at least Joseph is, so most cultists try to just injure them rather than kill them. They get a lot more second chances than the rest of us.”

Ajay snorted, “I hope you don’t start thinking that about me.” He said, shoulder checking her playfully. 

Jess rolled her eyes and shoved him to the side. “I would never. Your idiocy is already enough of a disadvantage for you that you’d have a harder time than the rest of us surviving even if the cultists weren’t trying to kill you!” Ajay gasped in mock hurt and she smirked at him. “I’m not sure if I should be leaving you alone, but I still need to help out the Militia, and they hate you almost as much as you hate them.”

“Debatable.” He muttered as a man came walking up to him. 

“You’re Ajay Ghale!” Ajay almost groaned, it wasn’t amazing to have his name recognized by random people, it usually led to him being shot at. “You’ve gotta help.” Of course he did. “Cheeseburger is the mascot here, my brother and I found him when he was just a little cub. I let ‘im free when the Peggies started taking over, apparently they wanted to turn him into one of those Judges, but like as a bear. Problem is, he’s got the diabetes.”

“Wait, what? Diabetes?”

“Yeah, diabetes! You can’t actually feed him cheeseburgers ‘cause of that, but he loves some fresh salmon. You give him some of that and he’ll love you.” The man pat him on the shoulder, “you seem to have a way with animals, y’got Jess to like you after all!” 

Ajay stared at the man through his boisterous laughter. “Jess isn’t an animal.” He said tersely, his arms crossing.

“Nah, she ain’t. But she won’t trust anyone who ain’t either an animal or good with ‘em.”

Ajay considered it and smiled, “sure, I’ll go find Cheeseburger and bring him back here.” And with that, he set off. He had no clue where Cheeseburger was, but he came upon a lot of weird things while he wandered around through the forest. A diabetic bear wouldn’t be the oddest thing he’d met.

Ajay hummed to himself, the man had said he’d need fresh salmon, he’d have to go fishing. Thankfully there was a small lake nearby. “Hey. You mind if I do some fishing too?” The person glanced over at them and shook their head. They looked worn out, dressed in some camo pants and a heavy duty brown jacket. Ajay took that to mean that he could so he stepped up beside them and took the fishing rod that had been resting on the dock. He let out a breath and cast, looking over at the person again. He couldn’t tell if they were a dude or a girl, he wasn’t sure if it even mattered. They seemed a little hollow, like they weren’t even much of a person. Ajay had seen that look before, on other people, even on himself before. He caught a fish relatively easily and popped the fresh salmon with the rest of the meat in his pocket. He didn’t even see an odd look from the person beside him. He slipped a cookie wrapped in saran wrap out of his pocket and pressed it into the person’s hand. “Sometimes sweets can help a bit,” he found himself saying before he turned and headed back into the forest. “Cheeseburger! Here, beary-beary!”

He didn’t know what he thought would happen, but those words did not bring the bear to him. Neither did half an hour of wandering, aimless. What did eventually bring him to the bear was the man, who Ajay now knew to be named Wade, telling him where the bear had last been seen. Of course, that led him right into a bunch of Peggies. He sighed, he was done with this day, and it had barely just begun. He threw away all notions of stealth and threw a mass of grenades and molotovs at the Peggies, completely decimating most of them and picking the rest of them off with his bow rather quickly. He was not in the mood for a long, drawn out fight. He just wanted to find a diabetic bear, that’s all.

And find the bear did he. Cheeseburger was dozing by the water but when Ajay got within a few feet of him, his looked up, growling. Ajay sighed, he had dealt with enough giant animals in his life, the elephants of Kyrat coming to mind. “Here, buddy.” He said with a smile, tossing the salmon over. He was pretty impressed when the bear caught it in his mouth and scarfed it down, and he was especially glad when he got to pet the bear. Something about petting animals that really weren’t meant to be pet always brought a smile to his face. Ajay turned his head, grinning. He could hear some Peggies shouting things about their ‘Father’, but all he could think of was testing out his new battle partner. “Let’s go fuck some shit up, buddy.”

Ajay and Cheeseburger made a terrifying duo, Ajay forging his bow and gun entirely and picking up a shovel, smashing the painted smiley face right into a cultist’s jaw. To his left, Cheeseburger’s maw and claws were already bloody, dead bodies littered around him. It was a disaster scene– for the cultists. For the man and bear, it was a whole lot of fun and an amazing stress relief. Ajay felt actually comfortable in Hope County for the first time since his arrival, and the bear that Wade said he could take with him whenever was definitely a large part of that. He even got to ride the bear for a few seconds before Cheeseburger decided that he really didn’t like that and Ajay was thrown off when the bear stood on his hind legs.

 

Ajay’s next animal encounter happened about two weeks later in the youngest brother’s region. He thankfully hadn’t been kidnapped by Jacob again in that span of time, but they were running out of food at Hurk’s house that wasn’t meat, and Hurk had promised to make a pumpkin pie if Ajay could pick up a pumpkin and some other fresh produce for him. So Ajay was in John’s region since that was apparently where all the farms were, this led Ajay to question why people even lived in the other regions, but he didn’t voice these thoughts. Apparently Rae Rae’s farm had the best pumpkins, but when Ajay approached the coordinates of the farm all he could see was a few dead bodies, a dog in a cage, and cultists. 

“Goodie.” He grumbled, patting Cheeseburger’s flank. The bear was equipped with bags for him to put produce in, but he was now glad that he had chosen to get a pumpkin first because he was sure that otherwise the food would be damaged. “Go get them, boy.”

The cultists were dispatched relatively easily, not having expected to be mauled by a bear, Ajay casually grabbing a decent looking pumpkin and carrying it under his arm. “Be nice, boy.” He warned Cheeseburger as he kicked open the dog’s cage, a little surprised when the pooch didn’t seem to even care about the bear, instead barking happily when Ajay pet him. “Boomer, huh?” He murmured, checking the tag hanging off his collar. He sighed, looking at the corpses that were once Boomer’s owners. “Welcome to the family, bud.”

Ajay did end up getting that pumpkin pie. He also got the last furry member of his family a scant week later. “Hey, dude.” He said, standing next to the silent person he had met many weeks before, once again fishing, though at a different spot. He got a nod, but he also saw something concerning. They were covered in wounds, including a nasty yellow bruise that covered half their face. “There something troubling you?” He’d drop it if they wanted him too, but he felt like he needed to help them. They hesitated, clearly tightening their grip on their fishing rod before nodding and pointing into the distance. His blood ran cold, “the Henbane?” He asked, hoping that wasn’t what they meant, but they nodded. “Of course… Alright, lead on.”

The person, who Ajay was beginning to suspect was that Deputy that was apparently also fucking up the cultist’s lives, lead them into the region and to an outpost packed with Peggies. It seemed that they’d been trying to take it for the Resistance but had gotten caught and shot up. “Alright, I’ll help you out.” He said with a smile and they clearly slumped in relief. Together they picked off the cultists, Ajay killing the cultists with his bow and expert aim and the other making sure they weren’t seen. It seemed that almost the exact moment they finished clearing the outpost of cultists was the moment that it was flooded with Resistance members. 

“Hey, Dep. Who’s your friend?” So Ajay was right then, this was the infamous Junior Deputy. He smiled over at the Resistance member.

“Ajay Ghale, I mainly stay over in the mountains though, Faith honestly scares me a bit.” He said and the man nodded.

“That must be why your name sounds familiar. I was gonna ask if I’d seen you on the news or something.”

“Don’t think I’ve ever been on the news,” Ajay said, you know, like a liar. He hung around for a little while longer, grabbing a few more arrows and accepting a hug from the Deputy while making sure that they would let their wounds heal a little bit before they went back to fighting. Finally, he left, walking through the Henbane region back up to the Whitetail Mountains, careful to avoid any patches of white flowers. He could already feel his head swimming a little bit, but he wasn’t sure if that was the Bliss or his paranoia about being drugged again. 

“Hey, brat?” Ajay stopped, if only because he was taken aback by the rudeness in the woman’s voice. “You look good with animals, you’ve got that feralness to you.”

“Uh, than–”

“You need to get my Peaches back for me. My sweet cougar’s gone off, eating those Peggies that tried to take her.” She said, scowling and tossing a bag full of chopped up meat to him. “Here, these are her favourite treats, bring her back here for me, will you?”

Ajay considered denying her help seeing as she was rude and literally just demanding that he go get her cougar for her but he decided to do it, if only to give the cat some treats. “... Sure.” He said, turning before the old lady could say anything else to demean him. He followed the trail of dead bodies, muttering under his breath about stupid old ladies and feral kittens. He found Peaches enjoying a snack of dead cultists and he wrinkled his nose, tossing a treat over. “They’ll give you indigestion.” He chastised, not even considering the fact that he was talking to a cougar. The cougar seemed to agree with him, taking the treat rather than continuing to munch on the cultist. Ajay led Peaches back to the cranky old woman’s house, sighing when he saw that there was a firefight. “Can I get an animal for once in my life without having to decimate a whole bunch of cultists?” He asked as Peaches ignored her latest treat and decided to go play with her newest friends. He sighed, shooting a cultist that was charging up to him. Peaches did most of his work for him but when he turned to the old lady she was still scowling.

“Peaches is turning out to be more trouble than she’s worth.” She muttered, but she did have a slight fond tone as she pet the cat. “Plus I can’t keep her cooped up with me here, she gets bored. She seems to like you though, how about you take her with you and let her kill some cultists?”

“Sure.” Ajay said, dropping the treats on the ground. He was tired and just wanted to get out of there. Thankfully, Peaches seemed to understand and loyally followed after him, putting all the while. Ajay did like his animal companions though, they all thankfully got along with each other, though, Ajay did get a little pouty when Jess seemed to like Peaches more than him.

“She’s cuter than you.” Jess said, as if that justified it, but all in all he was happy with his new friends. On the other hand, he wasn’t very happy when Jacob decided it was finally time to give him that orientation video.


	7. HIGH SCHOOL ORIENTATION VII

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ajay has very strong music tastes and that works in his favour.

Ajay awoke with a groan and a cuss. All in all, not very different from how he normally woke up, though he normally wasn’t sitting upright and in a chair. And therein lay his problem. “I swear to god if I’m in a dress someone is getting shot. Probably me.” He mumbled very quietly as he opened his eyes. He was not, in fact, in a dress, instead he was seated, a projected image of a bunch of mangled human corpses in front of him. “What the fuck…”

“Ancient men were killers…”

Ajay rolled his eyes. It was this bitch again, Jacob Seed, going on and on about how they needed to go back to the good old days of killing. He had heard him on the radio once or twice, when he secretly listened to the cult radio because (and he hated to admit it) Oh John and Set Those Sinners Free were both bops.

“We’re no longer hungry, or thirsty, or cold: we’re no longer alive.”

“We may no longer be alive but you’re still a little bitch.” Jacob had looked like he was going to say something more, say his finishing piece to his murder school orientation speech but Ajay just couldn’t take it anymore. He cut him off and almost laughed when Jacob just looked upset. Just like any teacher would when the students interrupted them. Unfortunately (or possibly fortunately, given Ajay didn’t really want to die at the moment), Jacob continued and finished his speech.

“The solution is war. War will bring out our best. War will give us life!”

Ajay realized why this felt familiar. “You little bitch! You’re giving me the same speech you play on the radio? You can’t even deign to give me one that you haven’t broadcast to everyone in this region?”

Jacob sighed and rubbed his temples. He went through war and yet Ajay was the thing that was really making him struggle. “Listen. Normally you’d get a different orientation speech with other people, an original speech, but you didn’t take to the conditioning well so I had to improvise. Okay?”

Ajay gave him a bland look. “Right. You had to improvise.” He sighed and rubbed his temples before looking at Jacob. “You didn’t even tie me up, what kind of shit villain are you? I mean, yeah, Pagan didn’t tie me up either but he wasn’t trying to condition me!”

Jacob blinked at him, “that’s Peaches’ fault. Who’s Pagan?”

“My step dad. And why would my cougar be tying me up?” Ajay stood up and he had a knife to his throat. “Oh for fuck’s sake.”

“Your cougar?” There was so much confusion in the air it practically was high school orientation day. “Jesus fucking Christ, let’s try this again…” And with that, Ajay was falling into a pit of darkness.

 

This time, Ajay was in a similar room, now with two men also sitting next to him and with the images projected onto the screen being those of deer carcasses. He sighed and just sat back in his chair, rolling his eyes. He got a different speech this time, one that he hadn’t heard on the radio. Honestly though, he hadn’t really been paying attention until Jacob strode in front of him and opened a music box.

“Dude, this song is absolute shit. You have a really bad taste in music.” He was pretty sure that the moment was supposed to be tense and climactic but he couldn’t help it. He really hated this song. Sure, his vision was going red and that was a little concerning, but all he could think about was how much he absolutely abhorred the song and it started to fade.

“Cull the herd.” Jacob’s voice was full of malice and Ajay was starting to realize what dangerous of an enemy he was facing. Of course, Ajay was too busy looking for an exit to realize that the others in the room were about to kill him and soon ended up back in the chair, the dreaded song restarting.

“Oh for fuck’s sake…”

* * *

 

Jacob Seed left the Kyrati man to his hallucinations, Only You playing on repeat in the room. He had information to share with his brothers. His heavy army boots left dirt in the church, his steps echoing throughout the room. “Joseph.” He said, his arms crossed. John seemed almost scared of Joseph, as did that imposter girl he was supposed to consider his sister. He wasn’t exactly sure why they were afraid of him, perhaps because they actually believed in his ‘visions from God’ and this so called ‘collapse’.

“Brother.” He bore the hug from Joseph with a roll of his eyes, keeping his arms crossed. “Do you have news on the outsider?”

Jacob drew out the moment, sitting down in one of the pews and resting his muddy boots on the top of the pew in front of him. “Yeah.” The silence obviously wanted him to answer so he huffed, rolling his eyes and picking at the dirt under his nails. He hadn’t taken a shower in maybe a week, maybe he’d find the time this week to do so. “His name is Ajay Ghale, and apparently, he’s an American citizen.” He said snidely, thinking of the boy he had trapped in conditioning. “He’s from Kyrat though and actually lives there. He seems to be here on a vacation.”

“Ajay Ghale?” Jacob was surprised to hear little Johnny speak before Joseph did. “His name sounds familiar. You said he was from Kyrat?”

“Yeah. Apparently he helped make the Tarun Matara into the Queen or something.” Jacob shrugged, “he seems to be unusually resistant to conditioning, he probably has experience with conditioning of some sort. Also, he has a fast metabolism so I had to drug him up more than usual.”

“Sometimes people don’t accept the Bliss. It’s sad.” The Jessop girl spoke in her airy voice, her gaze never quite focussed. Jacob wasn’t sure why Joseph had gone through so many of these girls, drugging them up and manipulating them until he found his perfect ‘Faith.’ His brother had tried to insist that their followers needed a maternal figure, but that only brought more questions. He really hoped his brother wasn’t having sex with her.

“Right, Faith, it’s very sad.” His voice was dripping with sarcasm and Joseph was trying to give him a disapproving look but the girl didn’t seem to notice. She even had the gall to giggle and skip over to him before actually giving him a hug. Jacob scoffed and shoved her off which got an even more disappointed look from Joseph but he could care less. “He also isn’t capable of shutting up, pretty much the opposite of your darling Deputy, Joseph.” Jacob smirked as he stood. “One more thing before I go. Joseph, he seems very insistent on not marrying you. Did you propose?” And with that snide remark, he was out the door and heading back to go see how the conditioning was going.

 

“What do you mean, he’s gone?” Jacob’s head was already pounding from the sheer amount of Bliss that had been in his brother’s church and this only made it worse. He was itching to punch something but he had to remind himself to not punch one of his few competent soldiers.

“He’s just gone. He wasn’t interested in the hallucinations, just making the song stop. He based out the speakers and just… ran off before any of us noticed exactly what was happening.” The man winced, “sorry, sir.”

“So you weren’t paying attention.” Jacob rubbed his temples, maybe he’d take a shower today if only to get away from all this incompetence. Still… “Every soldier has his bad days. Do better next time. Dismissed.”

The soldier nodded and saluted him before turning pausing. “Sir, the Deputy has been caught for conditioning as well.” He then proceeded to leave the room. Jacob prided himself on having the most loyal followers. Faith’s were all loyal because they were drugged up, and John’s were at least partially loyal from fear. Sure, most of his men were brainwashed to be as they were, but his upper ranks weren’t and were actually competent. Joseph had loyal followers too, but Joseph never actually utilised them, instead relying on his siblings to do his dirty work.

Jacob scratched his beard. So he had to give the Deputy their orientation, then he’d take a shower and only after his shower would he decide whether or not to deal with the Ghale boy himself. He was more interesting than the Deputy, at least he had some bite to him, but Joseph still said that the Deputy was top priority. As much as he found Joseph to be ridiculous, he would support his siblings no matter what.

* * *

 

Ajay sighed as he rested his back against the wall of the F.A.N.G. Center building. He was dreading the call that he’d have to make to Jess. Theoretically he would have been able to just take one of the cars at the outpost, but the Whitetails had banned him from doing that after all the cars he had destroyed by being shot at… and occasionally by driving off of cliffs. Fortunately, Ajay didn’t have to call Jess. Unfortunately, Jess was right there.

“Ajay!” She marched over to him and Ajay braced himself for the slap he knew he’d get but instead was put in headlock and her knuckled ground into his skull. “You idiot, did you get captured again?”

“Ow, ow, ow,” he whined as he tried to squirm out of her grip. “Yes! I got captured again and he had this awful music, I mean, Only You is such a bad song, and it just wouldn’t stop playing. I mean I think he was trying to brainwash me, but all I could think about was how much I hate those songs.”

“He tried to brainwash you?” She huffed and released him, Ajay rubbing his head to try and fix his hair and soothe the soreness.

“Yeah, I mean, I guess so.” He muttered, rummaging around in his pocket and popping a Tylenol into his mouth. “Didn’t work though, I think my hatred overridded it.”

Jess snorted, “I didn’t know that was possible. I don’t think that is possible. Anyways, a call managed to patch through the Seed’s blocking and we managed to catch it. They’re asking for you.”

Ajay felt more fear than he ever had until that moment. “Bhadra.” He muttered, running into the room where someone was holding the phone for him. He had promised to call Bhadra once a week. It had been about a month since he had arrived in Kyrat. “Hey, Bhadra.” He said, holding the phone up to his ear.

Thankfully she didn’t scream. Her voice wasn’t even ice cold, instead it was relieved and a bit disappointed. “Ajay. You’re alright.” And there it was, it turned angry. “How dare you. Did you even attempt to call me? I was worried sick, both for your sake and for the sake of the Kyrati people. I am the Tarun Matara but they love their King. They love you. They started asking me where you were two weeks ago and I had no answer because I didn’t know. All I knew was that you were in America and that you landed safely. You didn’t even text when you arrived at Hurks!”

Ajay cut into the rant when Bhadra paused for breath. “I know, I’m sorry. I’ve just been busy, I swear, there–”

“Too busy for family, Ajay?” Her voice had lost all anger once again and it made Ajay want to cry. He couldn’t lose more family than what he already had lost. He just couldn’t.

“No, but Hurk needed help, and he’s family too. There’s a cult here, Bhadra, that’s why it was so hard for you to get to me. They’ve taken over the entire county and I’ve been trying to fight against them but it’s hard. I’ve been kidnapped twice– don’t worry, I’m okay– and I guess I’ve been too distracted by helping Hurk to even think of home. I’m sorry, Bhadra.” He tried to imbue as much of his honesty into his voice. He really was sorry.

He could hear her sigh over the phone and something rustled, probably the paperwork she had to deal with. “A cult, Ajay? How do you always manage to get into such trouble? Do you need help?”

Ajay shook his head and sighed. “No, I’m good. We don’t want to cause an international incident. Things are going good here anyways, we’re taking back places for the cult. I mean, it’s easier than taking the country back from Pagan. This is basically a cake walk. The Seeds are nothing compared to Yuma.” He may have been understating it just a little bit, he had only dealt with one Seed sibling so far but it had been easier than taking the country back from Pagan.

“Alright Ajay.” She didn’t seem to believe him, but she was willing to not send in a barrage of soldiers. “My connection is getting spotty. Stay safe, okay? Love you, Kyra be with you.” And with that, he could hear the quiet sound that indicated the call had ended. He rubbed his face, placing the phone back and setting himself down on a ragged red couch.

“That was your sister then?” Jess was eating some corn nuts that she had got from somewhere, putting home into his outstretched hand.

“Yeah, Bhadra. She’s ruling Kyrat for the both of us while I’m gone, but she just wants me to end this and head home.”

Jess grinned and it was terrifying and Ajay couldn’t help but grin right back at her. “Well then, we’ll just need to make it so that you can get home sooner, won’t we?” Jess turned at Ajay saw a silhouette standing in the doorway, looking ragged and tired but curious.

Ajay was picking up what she was putting down. “You’re telling me that we’re not going to wait for him to come to us, we’re going to come to him?” He was standing, shoving the corn nuts in his mouth. He could feel adrenaline racing through him. He was tired of waiting for orders, for instructions, for others to start the battle.

He was ready.

“Hey, Dep?” The Junior Deputy turned towards him and tilted their head. “Want to deal with some lawbreakers?” The Deputy smiled and nodded, hoisting their bow and turning to show him the assault rifle strapped to their side. Ajay took a deep breath. Okay.

“Let’s go fuck shit up.”


End file.
